Back to the Daily Grind

… as Niamh ruefully said last night. I’m not sure what’s grinding her down since I’m the one who had to go off to the office this morning when the holiday had ended much too soon, as holidays invariably do.

It was good to take a week off after the marathon. It definitely helped recharging my batteries, especially the mental ones. After the marathon I had felt like never running again, but within 4 days the old itch had returned, and I was back out, just like Niamh had predicted. She might know me better than I do myself.

The week in Dublin included Halloween, and all the three older ones unanimously decided that we should spend every Halloween in Dublin. There are a lot more houses in Dublin than in Caragh Lake, and trick-or-treating is much more rewarding. They came back with bags loaded with loot. I think they’re still on that sugar high, even though they’ve still not finished all their sweets. We also managed to carve the least scary pumpkin in history.

Even more importantly, at least for the parents, was Maia’s first birthday. Isn’t it amazing how quickly time passes? The birthday girl didn’t quite understand what was going on, of course, but she definitely liked the attention, and she loved the toys she got. We all enjoyed the birthday cake, and since I had just run a marathon, Niamh and Nana insisted that I would get two pieces. I didn’t complain. There’s a time for restraint, and this was not it.

Coincidentally, this also marks the anniversary of me getting rid of my car, something I remembered as I was cycling to work this morning. For once I had managed to be ahead of time, I had done that before the oil price had gone into orbit, and not just for financial reasons either. That’s not to say that it wasn’t worthwhile financially; the money used to run out well before the end of the month, these days I’ve actually still got something left by payday. With the recession amongst us, that’s definitely a plus.

I have cautiously returned to running. I have set the Garmin to beep whenever the HR goes over 152, which so far has happened at each run. As the recovery from the marathon goes on I should be able to increase the pace without crossing that threshold. At least I hope so. At the present rate I’d go nuts if I had to crawl around like that for 5 more weeks.

2 Nov

4.5 miles, 36:58, 8:14 pace, HR 146

3 Nov

5 miles, 42:15, 8:26 pace, HR 146